Most furniture has a lacquer coating or "film" on certain portions of the external surfaces thereof. Those skilled in the art well know that conventional furniture polishes form at least one additional film layer on top of the furniture lacquer coating or film. "Smearing" of a polished furniture surface occurs when a shearing force is applied to an area or region along the surface of the furniture polish film layer.
The ability of a polished furniture surface (i.e., the furniture polish film layer) to return to its original appearance after being smeared, and the amount of time required to return the furniture polish film layer to its original appearance, are two factors or parameters which tend to be rather important in the evaluation of the performance of any particular furniture polish composition or formulation. The term "smear recovery", as used herein, thus denotes not only the rate-of-recovery but also the ability of a "smeared" surface-applied furniture polish film to return to its original surface appearance.
Furniture polish compositions or formulations possessing superior smear recovery properties have long been desired. Commercially-available silicone-containing furniture polishes, however, and in particular the surface-applied films they produce, typically lack this particular quality. Indeed, many conventional dimethyl silicones tend to deposit films which exhibit "bronzing". (To exhibit "bronzing" is to exhibit a tendency to streak.) Moreover, dimethyl silicones, many of which are of a liquid nature, naturally tend to smear because of their liquid nature.
To reduce "bronzing", formulators of a number of presently commercially-available furniture polishes incorporate certain additives--such as waxes, oils and/or surfactants--into many of their dimethyl silicone-containing furniture polish formulations. The addition of such additives to a furniture polish formulation, however, often produces undesirable effects. For example, the addition of wax to such a polish formulation generally reduces the ability of the resultant polish film to exhibit total smear recovery; while the addition of oil and/or surfactant tends to make a smear more visible, which is generally undesirable.
It is, moreover, well known to those skilled in the art that certain light-reflectance properties of an applied polish film are dependent upon such physical characteristics as film thickness and film viscosity.
Depth-of-gloss, one such light-reflectance property, relates to the ability, for example, of a polished lacquered furniture surface to reflect light. In the case of the polished lacquered furniture surface, mentioned above, one particular depth-of-gloss value would become relatively more aesthetically pleasing to the eye in the event that a major portion of incident light rays should pass through the polish film (or films, if several) and through the lacquer, and thereafter should be reflected off of (or be absorbed by) the true or actual substrate surface, e.g. the actual wood-grained surface of the furniture.
Thus, high shine, one particular depth-of-gloss quality, is known to occur when relatively more light is reflected from the surface of a polish film; whereas rich appearance, another particular depth-of-gloss quality, is known to occur when relatively less light is reflected from such a surface.
Shearing forces applied to the surfaces of such polish films thus tend to give rise to certain surface disturbances, called "smears", which can be caused by such factors as the diffusion of reflected light rays, the exposure of the underlying substrate surface, and so forth.
It is also well known to those skilled in the art that polish films which tend to exhibit less depth-of-gloss (i.e., high shine) also tend to exhibit smears that are less readily visible. Depth-of-gloss is thus considered yet another particularly important performance parameter, when characterizing polish films.
Because of their particular optical properties, a number of presently commercially-available dimethyl silicones are utilized in furniture polish compositions, in lieu of such film-forming ingredients as waxes and/or surfactants and/or oils, for purposes of improving depth-of-gloss. However, and as was mentioned above, wax addition undesirably affects total smear recovery; and oil and/or surfactant addition undesirably affects smear visibility.
Thus, commercial furniture polishes that use conventional silicone-containing or conventional silicone-based fluids, as well as certain conventional waxes, surfactants and/or certain oils, seemingly initially tend to provide certain desirable surface-appearance values but, in fact, ultimately suffer from a variety of inherent disadvantages.
I have discovered, surprisingly, when a particular furniture polish concentrate comprises certain immiscible liquids, that a furniture polish composition formulated from such a concentrate can provide furniture surfaces with films that possess the depth-of-gloss qualities or values otherwise achieved through use of dimethyl silicone (which provides rich appearance), while maintaining some of the desirable smear-recovery properties, mentioned above, such as the exhibition of relatively less-visible smears (which are otherwise able to be provided by film-forming polish formulations consisting essentially of liquid ingredients only).
Briefly stated, I have discovered a furniture polish concentrate wherein at least three aspects of smear recovery, as thus defined, can now be controlled when the concentrate of the present invention is utilized in the manufacture of a furniture polish formulation. The three aspects referred to above are (1) the speed of smear recovery, (2) the overall visibility properties of any particular smear, and (3) the degree to which a smeared polish film recovers to its original state after being smeared.
One object of my invention, therefore, is to provide furniture polish concentrates and polish compositions for furniture and other similar household items, wherein such polish compositions exhibit improved smear-recovery qualities.
It is yet another object of my invention to provide furniture polish compositions and/or formulations which may be applied and removed with a minimum of effort, and which possess not only improved smear-recovery properties but also acceptable so-called "depth-of-gloss" characteristices as well.
The foregoing, as well as other objects, features and advantages of my invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following summary and detailed description.